Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 343: A Surprising Lesson

While my friends teased me with the fact that I had fans I was not entirely sure what to do about it. Perhaps I would just ignore it? I had never talked much with Felix and I had no intention of getting involved with his club. However, I kept pondering the issue over the next few days.

I guess what truly bothered me was how they viewed necromancy. For me it was not just a tool, it was a fascinating subject and tier three were real people, friends. Should I try to educate them about that? The idea sounded exhausting. I already had enough to do with all my classes, experiments and I wanted some time to spend with my friends and my girlfriend.

As I walked into my next necromancy class I saw Tim and Tom already at their desks. They had a tier two skeletal cat on their table and tried to feed it some bones, it seemed. Garm Nyx, Hatsumi and Kaito were with me and nodded towards the twins.

"Koyuki! Can you help us?" Tom asked, as I entered.

"Hi. What do you need help with?" I asked.

"We want to get our cat to devour bones." Tim replied.

"I don't think your skeleton is strong enough, you would need to create a new one and enhance it." I replied.

Tom sighed. "Yeah, we have figured that out. But what if we created a new one? Could you help us?"

I pondered that. "Do you have a corpse?"

"We do have a skeleton but it's not fresh…" Tim admitted.

"We would never just kill a cat to get a body, finding a skeleton can be hard." Tom added.

I nodded approvingly. "Maybe I can give you some tips, have you talked to Gronir?"

"We have. He said we should be patient and focus on small modifications, like enhancing the teeth and claws. He also said that devouring is not the most useful and if we were hoping to get it to evolve we would be disappointed." Tim said.

"Why do you want it to be able to devour?" I asked.

"It's cute…" Tim mumbled.

"Meow!" Nyx jumped on their table and looked at them. Tim offered her the bone he had in his hand.

Seeing that exchange I realised something: I had never started with a real low level undead. I got Nyx early on and while she had been a weakened tier three, or a tier three in hiding, she had never been mindless. I had played with her and interacted with her from the beginning. Maybe that was why I treated undead differently. I had never seen them as just tools because I always had Nyx showing me that there was more. Tim and Tom seemed to envy that and wanted an undead they could interact with.

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A tier two could maintain some of their instincts. That was why tier two could fight better than a tier one and do more than blindly slash. I guess you could create a tier two cat with some playful instincts but ultimately the skeleton would not think. You might have to order it to play and it could simulate some cat like behaviour but it would do little without your commands. Commands! You could likely create some commands to make a tier two behave a bit catlike.

"I will try to help." I promised.

As we talked Leo entered the room. I was already expecting him to join the conversation and complain about useless cats but he just nodded at us and sat down. He looked a bit pale, maybe he was getting sick.

Soon afterwards Gronir entered. "Hello students! Have a seat, today…" He looked around and paused. Then he started stroking his beard. "Actually, Tom please fetch our headmaster and Tim go look for Irene. Today will be a bit special."

"Yes, sir." They replied and left.

The headmaster? And Irene? I really wondered what that was about.

"While we wait, please just start reading chapter six." Gronir said, while rummaging around in his bag.

I really wanted to ask questions but it did not look like Gronir would elaborate until the other teachers arrived, so I just opened my book. However, I noticed some tension from my undead.

"Something is not right." I heard Hatsumi whisper.

I frowned and looked at Gronir, who did seem a bit tense. We were inside the academy, who would be mad enough to attack here? Did Gronir really expect something? Had that been a call for reinforcements? Why not say something? I looked at Leo, who sat there uncaringly, reading his textbook. He did not even have a single undead with him! Oh no, had he been replaced?

That would make sense. I readied my magic to cast a shield if needed and used my link to alert my other undead. Nyx was the only cat with me but the others were protecting my friends. Should I call for Bob, Frank and Chariot?

I tried to behave normally and pretend to read while my thoughts raced. I trusted Gronir and whatever plan he had. Time moved way too slowly until the door finally opened.

It was Erik Hailstorm, the headmaster. "So, what insane stunt has Koyuki pulled this time?" He asked, as he strode in. Gronir made some sort of hand gesture, Erik nodded, then magic exploded from his hands. In an instant Leo was frozen solid. It happened so fast that Leo was not even able to twitch before becoming an ice sculpture.

"Wow. Was he an assassin, like Eva?" I asked, while finally relaxing.

Erik's gaze pierced me and the room seemed to cool. My undead were positioning themselves protectively around me.

"Not quite." Erik replied.

"Leo is a thrall." Gronir said.

"Isn't that a tier two undead created by a vampire?" I asked.

"It is often used for that but vampires have another type of thrall, living ones." Gronir explained.

"You trust her?" Erik asked.

"Yes." Gronir answered.

I looked at them feeling confused. Then it dawned on me. "Wait, you think Hatsumi has something to do with this?"

"Personally? No. I do not think Hatsumi would be this careless. I have spent some time with her as she has helped me with researching vampires and when we all worked on the spellblade transformation. I do trust her, and you." Gronir stated. "Leo is being controlled by a vampire. It is not something most people could detect, not even most mages, but they can't fool me."

"You are the expert." Erik said, while looking at Leo.

"Oh, what sort of gathering do we have here?" I heard Irene's voice as she poked her head inside the room.

"Come in and bring the other students." Erik said. Tim and Tom entered, looking nervous.

"What does this mean?" I asked.

"It means a careless vampire, likely a young one, has taken control of Leo. For what purpose is hard to know. The vampire itself might be controlled by a necromancer. We will keep Leo safe for now but we will have to track down the vampire." Gronir explained.

"We will also have to ensure it is not Hatsumi, as a formality." Erik added.

"I understand." Hatsumi stated.

"This won't hurt her, right?" I asked.

"No, she will be fine." Gronir replied. "She might even be able to help us find the vampire who did this."